You're always in control of your Cuvva, and you'll never pay sneaky charges. We promise.

The benefits of one hour car insurance

The use cases for hourly car insurance are numerous. There are also benefits for the owner:

Their no claims bonus will be protected

They won’t have to waste their day trying to get through to their insurer on the phone

It will normally be much cheaper than being added as a named driver

Registration and getting a quote only takes an average of 2 minutes

Car sharing

Typically, we find younger drivers use short-term cover as an alternative to car sharing sites. The main advantages of Cuvva are:

Wider age group (from 19)

No upfront membership fee

No waiting time for confirmation

Cheaper and easier to borrow a friend’s car

With 1 hour of car insurance only costing an average of £10.80 and 3 hours, just over £13, buying daily car insurance may not make sense. Depending on your driving needs, buying a couple of 3 hour blocks may still be significantly cheaper than the daily average cost of £37.80.

Borrowing a car for a longer period of time? Our 28 day policies could be perfect

Reasons for daily cover

Sharing the driving

Driving long distances is exhausting. It doesn’t make sense for one person to do all the driving when you have a car full of people. Unfortunately, this is what normally happens – the admin and cost of adding a temporary additional driver is too high and the owner’s no claims is then at risk. Using Cuvva for hourly insurance is a simple and easy alternative. If split, the average cost should be around £2 per hour, per person!

Test drive insurance

Before buying a car, the chances are that you will want to test drive it. Paying around £35 for a day’s insurance when you’re going to drive for 30 minutes is, however, steep and grating, especially if you plan to test drive a few different vehicles. With prices from £7.92, you may be able to test drive 4 cars for the price of one! We’ve put together a guide on test drive insurance with tips on how to approach the process.

Trying out your friend’s car

We’ve all been there: someone we know has purchased a dream vehicle, be that a Porsche, a BMW or maybe a Tesla and we’d love to have a go driving it. This may often just not be possible as the cost of insurance is prohibitive. Assuming you aren’t really young and don’t have points on your licence, Cuvva may be able to offer sports car insurance (provided the car isn’t worth more than £40,000 and above insurance group 49). It’s also worth checking this won’t put your friend’s No Claims at risk.

Staying with friends

When going on a UK mini-break, there are times you may be offered access to a car. This would provide you with flexibility and freedom throughout the holiday but there’s then often a problem around insurance. The time, effort and costs associated may not seem worth it for such a short period. Cuvva provides the opportunity to avoid all of these pain points. As long as you have a UK DVLA driving licence, you can buy a policy in minutes.

Emergency temporary car insurance

Driving long distances is exhausting. It doesn’t make sense for one person to do all the driving when you have a car full of people. Unfortunately, this is what normally happens – the admin and cost of adding a temporary additional driver is too high and the owner’s no claims is then at risk. Using Cuvva for hourly insurance is a simple and easy alternative. If split, the average cost should be around £2 per hour, per person!

1 hour car insurance

Cuvva offers hourly car insurance from as little as £7.92. With the average customer paying £10.90 for an hour and just over £13 for 3 hours, Cuvva is far cheaper than traditional temporary car insurers. Even our daily car insurance costs our users an average of £37.80.

Insurance is available to learner drivers between 17-45 and full licence holders between 19-65 (although if you’re aged between 19 and 21, you must have held your licence for at least a year and have no at-fault claims). It is available on vehicles with and without another insurance policy on the car (full policy rules).

How it works

Create an account

Download the Cuvva app and sign up, in minutes.

Search for the vehicle

Enter the registration plate of the vehicle you want to get covered on.

Choose how long

From 1 hour to 28 days, to cover all your driving needs.

Start driving!

What hourly car insurance is likely to cost you

To give you some idea of what your insurance will cost, here’s a table showing a cheap, average and expensive policy in different areas. If you’re an older driver with a clean record, the chances are you’ll pay £7.92 for an hour and probably just under £10 for 3!

Cheapest

Average / hour

Most Expensive

Birmingham

£7.92 Peugeot 307, driver 23

£11.48

£58.86 Mercedes A45, driver age 23

Bristol (BR postcodes)

£7.92 VW Golf, driver 21

£9.18

£22.10 Audi A5, driver age 20

Edinburgh

£7.92 BMW 330d, driver 33

£8.06

£16.52 BMW X5, driver age 24

Guildford

£7.92 Ford fusion, driver 20

£8.46

£27.08 Mercedes CLK 63, driver age 22

London

£7.92 Kia Picanto, driver age 25

£10.23

£37.48 Mercedes CLK 63, driver age 22

Manchester

£7.92 Toyota Yaris, driver 29

£10.67

£36.68 Audi RS6, driver age 28

Newcastle

£7.92 Nissan Note, driver 19

£9.80

£28.74 Ford Focus, driver age 19

Watch how our hourly insurance works

What our customers love

What a fantastic app and company to use. Cuvva have made something that used to use up a fair amount of time and effort into something so simple! Once set up on the app it actually takes 30 seconds to be insured!

Luke

Easy to use and gives peace of mind. My husband could borrow my friend’s car for a couple of hours work – no hassle whatsoever.

Donna

The whole concept behind Cuvva changes the rules on car insurance and creates a genuinely useful and innovative way to think about driving. I would recommend the app without any hesitation.

Emeka

Have a 2nd car but don't drive often?

Frequently asked questions

Who can we cover?

We have worked hard with our underwriter to offer insurance to as many people as possible. It is currently available to learner drivers between 17-45 and full licence holders between 19-65 (although if you’re aged between 19 and 21, you must have held your licence for at least a year and have no at-fault claims).We only offer cover to holders of UK DVLA licences, on cars valued between £0 – £40,000 and up to insurance group 49 for experienced drivers. Check our full short term insurance policy rules for full details on who we can and cannot cover.

What vehicles can you cover?

Currently, we can insure cars and vans. There are a number of variable rules set by our underwriter that effect what vehicles you can get insured on such as how long you have held your licence and the insurance group of the vehicle. Also, there are some set rules, which are:

For cars:

cannot be older than 20 years old

cannot have modifications of any kind

cannot be scrapped

cannot be impounded

must be valued at above £1 and below £40,000

For vans:

cannot be older than 20 years

must be between insurance groups 1 - 20

cannot have modifications of any kind

cannot be scrapped

must be valued at above £1 and below £20,000

That is not an exhaustive list but it gives you a good indication of what vehicles we can currently insure. As we continue to grow, the range of vehicles we can insure should always keep expanding.

To see if we can insure you on a specific vehicle it's best to get a quote in our app.

How does our pricing work?

Like all insurers, our underwriter looks at a number of rating factors when calculating the cost of your insurance and your suggested risk, compared to other drivers. The biggest determinants of risk in our insurance model are:

Age

Vehicle insurance group

Location of the vehicle for temporary and postcode of registered address for subscription)

Claims and Convictions

So, by taking the factors above for 2 individuals aged 22 and 40:22 year old

Driving an insurance group 40 car (Porsche Boxter)

Located in the riskiest possible area (often in a city)

Has 3pts for speeding, but doesn’t have any claims

Has held his licence for 55 months

40 year old

Driving an insurance group 1 car (VW Up!)

Located in a safe rural area

No points, no claims

Has held his licence for 20 years

Here is an example of how their insurance could be priced using fictitious multipliers for 1 hour of cover:

Factor

Multiplication factor

22yr old insurance group 40, location 16, 3pts, no claims licence held for 1yr

40 yr old, insurance group 1, location 3, no points, licence held for 20 years

Base premium(1 hour)

NA

£5

£5

Age (19 – 60)

1 – 2.2

£5 x 2.2 = £11

£5 x 1 = £5

Licence held

.6 – 1.8

£11*1.8 = £19.8

£5 x .6 = £3

Insurance group(1 – 49)

.75 – 1.8

£19.8 x 1.8 = £35.64

£3 x .75 = £2.25

Location(1 – 16)

0.7 – 1.6

£91.08 x 1.6 = £57.02

£2.25 x .7 = £1.57

Claims and convictions

1 – 1.2

£57.02 x 1.05= £59.87

1.57 x 1 = £1.57

Total premiumbefore IPT, commission & admin fee

£59.87

£1.57

These are obviously extreme examples and most users would fall within a far smaller price difference bracket. In reality, there will always be a minimum premium which for Cuvva is currently £7.92 including IPT, commission and admin fees. In the future, we would like our pricing to rely on data rather than assumptions - driving behaviour will therefore be a major determinant rather than arbitrary factors like age.

What will you need to purchase insurance from us?

To purchase temporary car insurance through Cuvva, you will need to download our app on your phone. To register, you will need to have:

A photo of government approved photo ID (typically, this will either be your passport or your Driving Licence)

A UK DVLA driving licence number (we use this to check whether you have any motoring convictions and to verify the name, address and date of birth)

Your own UK debit/credit card to make the payment

Declared all incidents (at fault/not at fault) that you have been involved, as a driver, passenger or named driver, in the last 5 years.

Been a resident in the UK for the past 3 years or have been a long-term resident within the last 5 years who’s back visiting the UK.

Permission from the owner of the vehicle

How do you get quotes and purchase?

Once registered in the Cuvva app, getting a quote takes seconds. Simply enter the number plate of your car and you can generate a quote instantly. Once you have selected the amount of time you’d like to be covered for, you’ll need to take a photo of the front of the car (so we can see it isn’t damaged) and purchase. All our policies start instantly so once you’ve completed the payment, you can start driving immediately. At present, you can’t purchase in advance but this might be an option in the future.

Can your account be used by others?

Given the app is downloaded on your phone, linked to your own personal debit/credit card and with all the policies in your name, your account cannot be used by anyone else for purchasing insurance. They just need to download the app from their own device, complete a profile and can then starting using Cuvva.Short-term policies are also associated with one vehicle and cannot be transferred over, mid-policy. If you think you may be switching, we would recommend buying a few short-term policies.

Can you use Cuvva abroad?

The Cuvva app only currently functions in the UK, given your location is a factor in how we price your insurance. While you can only purchase policies in the UK, it is still possible to transport a car to the continent. We can, however, only offer very minimal 3rd party cover aboard (as required by EU law) so if you have an incident, we would be able to do very little to help and recovering your car would be your responsibility.

What happens if I run out of time or battery?

Don’t worry! You can extend your policy in the app in a couple of clicks. We would, however, recommend you give yourself some leeway and don’t have any last minute panics with no phone battery. You should not, under any circumstances, drive without insurance.

What do you do if you have an incident?

All claims are handled by the Underwriter, so you should call them as soon as possible.

Mulsanne: +442038287127

Collingwood: +442038287128

If significant damage has occurred or anyone has been injured, you should call the police. If the police do arrive, get the name and number of the police officer and take note of the crime reference number you are given. Other things you can do: - Take pictures of the incident with your phone. - Record the names and contact details of those involved and any witnesses. - Even if you think it may have been your fault, we would recommend not making any admission of fault or apology at the scene.

What can't Cuvva be used for?

Common examples include:

Insuring rental cars

Releasing a car from the pound or getting road tax

Racetrack days

Vehicles under a fleet policy

If you're ever in doubt, please get in contact with support by emailing us at support@cuvva.com or by using our in-app chat.

Short-term No Claim Bonus?

Unfortunately, you cannot earn any no claims bonus on our short-term car insurance product but you can on our subscription policies. If you buy 13 subscription policies in succession without any breaks in cover and don’t have any claims, you will have built up a 1 year NCB!

Cancellations and refunds

As a provider of short term car insurance, Cuvva and its underwriters are under no obligations to offer refunds (ICOBS 7.1.3 if you are interested). When you purchase a policy from us, we:

Pay a fee to check Claims and Underwriters Exchange (CUE) to ensure that your declared claims/incidents history matches the insurer database

Pay Stripe (payment provider) for administering the payment

Issue a certificate of motor insurance on behalf of the underwriter

Add your VRM to the MID

Many of these processes cost time and money, so, given the short-term nature of the policies, a cancellation/refund is an added cost. It is, however, always possible to cancel a policy if you wish to do so.N.B. If you have active insurance on a vehicle you have sold, we would recommend that you cancel your cover immediately. If a claim were to come in from the new owner, this could end up as a claim against your insurance!

Contacting support

If you have a problem using the app or purchasing insurance and you would like to speak to us, the easiest way to do so is using our online chat function. This can be done in app, on the website (using the speech bubble) or by emailing support@cuvva.com. On average, we will get back to you within 2 minutes!

Claims and Underwriting Exchange (CUE)

Once you’ve selected the policy you would like, we have to check the CUE database before you can make a purchase. This holds a log of all incidents and claims within the past 5 years involving cars, vans and motorbikes/scooters. If your declarations do not match CUE your purchase will fail. It is therefore very important to declare any incidents from within the past 5 years, both at fault and not at fault, and as the driver, passenger or named driver. By not declaring these, you may not be able to purchase with Cuvva for a number of months.

Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE)

In 2011, the government introduced the Continuous Insurance Enforcement rules. These stated a requirement for a car to either be registered with a Statutory Off Road Notification with the DVLA or to have valid motor insurance. If you are caught without valid insurance, your car will likely be impounded as the police’s ANPR systems will automatically alert them if you are driving without insurance.

Motor Insurance Database (MID)

All purchased car insurance policies are added to the MID (Motor Insurance Database) and any policy can be checked by visiting the AskMID website. Unfortunately, the database updates irregularly, sometimes as little as once a week and, in addition, the police ANPR camera database is updated weekly. This can mean that the police may stop you for “driving without insurance” when you are fully insured. If this happens you can show the officers your policy documents and ask that they do a live MID check.